


Pretty Boy

by Multifandom_damnation



Category: Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Big Brother Dick Grayson, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Dick Grayson is Robin, Flashbacks, Gen, Haly's Circus, How Do I Tag, I Don't Even Know, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Introspection, its not that bad i promise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-07 09:23:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18617767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multifandom_damnation/pseuds/Multifandom_damnation
Summary: Dick has always been a pretty boy.Ever since he was old enough to know what that meant, and even before when he was just a squealing infant wiggling in his mother’s arms, it was something that rang in his ears like a mantra. “He’s such a pretty boy,” “You’re such a pretty boy, aren’t you Dicky.” And maybe that’s why, after being told so often, he had begun to believe it.





	Pretty Boy

**Author's Note:**

> This honestly could have been so much longer but I changed my mind at the last second not to include EVERYONE

Dick has always been a pretty boy.

Ever since he was old enough to know what that meant, and even before when he was just a squealing infant wiggling in his mother’s arms, it was something that rang in his ears like a mantra. _“He’s such a pretty boy,” “You’re such a pretty boy, aren’t you Dicky.”_ And maybe that’s why, after being told so often, he had begun to believe it.

His parents would tell him while he was snuggled up in as many blankets as they could find, a smile on their faces as he cooed and reached his tiny meaty hands up at their too-big faces. “Look at him, John,” his mother used to say, running a gentle, feather-light finger down his delicate cheek. “He’s such a pretty boy.” And there would be nothing but love and adoration in her voice, and John would wrap his arms around her and Dick would grab hold of his outstretched finger when he reached it out towards him and would agree.

“You know, Mary?” Dick still remembers his father’s chuckle to be deep and kind- like being wrapped up in a warm blanket when you were too sick to make it to bed. “I don’t think I’ve ever agreed with you quite so much in our lives.”

Haly would stand with him out on the sidelines while the rest of the acts performed in the spotlight, Dick’s little feet shuffling and his hands twisting in his uniform, eyes darting to and fro between his family entertaining the crowd and his parents preparing for their act in the corner. “Why the long face, kiddo?” Haly asked with a head cocked to the side, his obnoxiously tall had slid down so the brim covered his eyes. “You look more nervous than I’ve seen you in months. Years even.”

Dick didn’t have to answer because Haly knew him more than he knew himself, knew what Dick was thinking even before he thought it. That’s what happened when you lived and travelled with the same people in an enclosed space every day of your life since the day you were born. “I know there’s a lot of people here tonight, but it’s Metropolis! When are we ever going to get another chance like this?” The clowns concluded their act with a bow and the honking of their large shoes, and Haly reached down and pinched Dick’s cheek between his fingers. “Well, we’re up, pretty boy. Let’s go give them a show they’ll never forget.”  

Alfred was the first the call him that when he moved into the Manor, hiding behind the large oak double doors that led into Bruce’s study that Alfred had left slightly ajar when he entered to give Bruce his requested painkillers and a tall glass of water. “I can tell you have something on your mind, Alfred,” Bruce said, taking a sip of his water, voice muffled by the handful of painkillers he had thrown into his mouth. “Is there something you’d like to talk to me about? It wouldn’t be regarding my new charge, would it?”

“Actually sir, I know it’s not my place, but I was just wondering…” Alfred trailed off but continued with new vigour that surprised Dick. “Master Richard is young. He is still getting over the brutal death of his parents, as you were at his age, and I know what you’ve been considering. I’m not sure involving him in your… line of night-time work is befitting for him. He’s such a pretty boy- why must we ruin him with broken bones and scars like you are so intent on doing to yourself?” Dick was gone before he heard Bruce’s reply, padding down the hallway on swift feet clad on mishmash socks towards the too-big room he’d claimed as his.

Dick was in the bathroom when Bruce walked in, adjusting the cuffs on his finely tailored suit and checking his reflection in the mirror while Dick was still clad in fluffy slippers and a dressing gown that swallowed him, barely able to see over the top of the high sink, his hand still gripping the bright blue plastic toothbrush, toothpaste on his face. Chuckling, Bruce knelt down, licked his finger, and ran it across the toothpaste smear on Dick’s cheek. “What’s wrong, Kiddo? You’re taking an awfully long time to get ready. Are you nervous?” Dick nodded and shuffled his feet. “Well, don’t be. They’re all going to love you.”

Bruce pulled out the gel and slicked back his hair and Dick watched in the mirror as he was suddenly transformed from Dick Grayson, circus performer and member of the Flying Grayson’s to Dick Grayson-Wayne, adopted son of billionaire Bruce Wayne and now a member of the Gotham City populous. “There we go, there’s my pretty boy. Come on, let’s get you ready. I’m sure all those news outlets standing outside the manor are just dying to meet you.”

Dick loved being Robin, more than he had ever loved anything, even more than flying around on the trapeze at the circus, even when he would distract the goons in his brightly coloured costume with his little cape that would flap loudly in the wind so Batman could take care of them. When they caught sight of him, their stunned look of confusion was soon masked by humour as they laughed at him. “What’s a pretty boy like you doing out here?” One would laugh, picking up whatever weapon he had nearby, not caring in the slightest that Dick was very obviously a child. “There’s no good playing superhero if you come to places like this, waiting to get your ass kicked.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Dick would reply smugly as he saw the form of Batman gliding in from above. “I’m not playing.” And as Batman broke noses and dislocated arms and tied up the bad-guys, Dick realized for the first time that being ‘pretty’ could be used to his advantage.

Gordon had looked at Dick with that kind of look that adults use when they can’t believe a child is participating in an adult conversation and is actually following along with every word they said. “I don’t think I agree with your motives, Batman. You really want a pretty boy like this getting his ass kicked every night and then having to fix him up when he comes to you crying with broken bones and bruises? He’s too young for this. If it was my little girl…” He trailed off, shaking his head.

“Don’t worry,” Batman assured before Dick even had the chance. “He’s much more than just a pretty face. I promise you that.” Gordon still didn’t look convinced, but he let it go and began talking about whatever villains Batman had to catch that night, and Dick felt a little something began to swell inside his chest.

“You know,” Barbara said when they were lounging on the roof of Wayne Manor, still in their uniforms but mask-less with nobody but the stars as a witness, arms crossed under their heads. “I never thought I’d have a friend that was as pretty as you, a _boy_ best friend, but I’m glad that all this turned out the way it did. If my dad found out though…” She shivered. “I’m not sure what he would hate more. That I go out every night dressed up as a superhero to fight beside Batman and Robin or that the only friend I’ve had in a long time is Dick Grayson, adopted son of Bruce Wayne, a _boy.”_

But Dick was looking at her with a sly grin curling across his face, a twinkle in his eye that had nothing to do with the reflection of the stars above them in his irises. “You think I’m pretty?” he teased and with an exasperated groan, Barbara threw her cape over his face to block it from her view and it was Dick’s loud, hearty laughter that finally gave away their position and Alfred stuck his head through the window to yell at them.

When Jason said it, even later in life, it was with the teasing way brothers did when they were trying to be affectionate but didn’t want to give away their tough-guy image. His voice muffled by his overbearing read mask or maybe just the smile on his lips. “Come on, pretty boy, don’t tell me you’re giving up now?” He’d tease, and Dick always puffed up his chest and rose to the challenge. “What happened to you being the Golden Boy if you’re too much of a scaredy-cat?”

“Shut up, Jay,” Dick rolled his eyes, his lips quirking up against his will. He ran towards the edge of the balcony, relishing in the way the wind blew through his hair and stung at his skin, and leapt off the roof in a flip his parents would have been proud of. “At least I’m not afraid of flying!”

The Joker never sugar-coated anything, not when Dick was Robin and certainly not when he was Nightwing, but maybe that was because Dick wasn’t afraid of him, and Joker hated him more than he’d ever hated any of the others. Maybe because he’d never been able to hurt Dick for long. He wasn’t sure. “It would be a shame, Batsy…” The Joker would laugh, his wicked grin stretched obscenely wide across his face. “You’ve got such a cute little kiddo here. What would happen if I caved his pretty little face in?”

He laughed, but Dick wasn’t afraid, because he knew that sooner or later Batman would be there to save him, and until Batman managed to fight off the men clinging to him, then Dick would just sit there and smile his pretty little smile and look the Joker in the eye as if he wasn’t silently reciting his goodbyes and apologies to his parents.

Roy was a flirt, and he’d always been a flirt for as long as Dick had known him, and was not ashamed to show just how much he loved everyone he met. The Titans Tower was a safe haven for Dick, somewhere away from the prying, watchful eyes of Batman and where he could learn how to be his own person away from the colourful suit and the black shadow looming at his side. “You know, Dickie,” Roy mused over the lip of his beer bottle. “I think you should know, that while you’ve got the prettiest face I’ve seen in a long time, you’re not really my type.”

Taken aback, Dick blinked and decided to blame the blush that crept across his cheeks on the alcohol. “O-oh, uh,” Dick stuttered, mind going stupid and mouth going numb. “Thanks?” Roy just had a hearty chuckle at his discomfort and Dick never had the nerve to ask what his ‘type’ actually was.

Wally was all about that lightning-quick wit and the speed to-boot, his mouth moving almost as fast as his feet and his words flying from his mouth almost too quick for his brain to process and order properly. “You know, when I finally got to learn the secret identity of the famous Robin, sidekick to the big-bad-bat and trouble maker,” He began with his hands in his pockets, “I never expected it to be Dick Grayson, the pretty boy of Wayne Industries with eyes the colour of melted sapphires.”

“Shut up!” Dick hissed and looked around to make sure nobody on the street had heard and that nobody was listening in to their conversation. When he was satisfied that they were alone and safely away from prying eyes, he smirked and elbowed Wally in the side. “You’re just jealous that I’m the good looking one.” Wally just rolled his eyes and kept walking,

Tim always looked up to him in a way Dick could never understand, maybe because he was the first and Tim just wanted to follow in his footsteps, make him proud, make Batman proud. Dick never had the heart to tell him that meeting your idols was never what you wanted it to be. “Come on, Timbo!” Dick cheered as they walked through the streets towards the big-tent, more familiar to him than his name on his tongue and the smells of the carnival floating through the air. “Can you feel it? The magic in the air? Aren’t you excited just by the sounds of the music and the smell of peanuts and popcorn?”

“Yeah, sure,” Tim snorted, taking another bite out of his almost neon pink fairy floss. It was overly sweet and not the most appealing texture in the world, but it was as nice as carnival foot went. “I only agreed to this because nobody can say no to your pretty face, especially when you get those big, baby doe eyes.” Grinning, Dick took him by the hand and wheeled his brother away towards the big top.

Kori always treated him with more love and respect than he deserved and when she kissed him, it was like he was her air and she was under the sea without a working tank. Her hair was long enough to wrap around his hand and still have lots left over, but it was like an extension of her, so Dick didn’t really mind when it got in the way. “I must admit, when I had first arrived on this planet, I never expected to encounter people like you, Dick Grayson.”

Her voice was so deep and so sultry that Dick found himself unable to speak for a good few moments and Kori took his silence as permission to keep speaking. She ran a perfectly manicured nail down the side of his cheek, sending shivers down his spine. “I have never expected to meet, much less fall in love with someone so… pretty. Such a pretty boy. Such a pretty face.” And suddenly, Dick found himself not saying much of anything at all.

Damian was stern and sharp and curt, with very little patience and even less kindness to spare, but somehow he managed to find space in his heart for Dick, whether he was Nightwing or Batman or Grayson. “Damian, I know you’re excited, but why do I have to come?” Dick laughed as Damian tugged him by the arm towards the car parked outside in the snow.

“Because there is a sale on at the store, Grayson,” Damian said as though it was obvious. “And the women at the store will fall in love with your wiles and your pretty face and probably give me a sale on the games!” Dick’s only response was to hold back his laughter as Damian shoved him into the car.

All his life, Dick’s always been the pretty one, the one with the looks and the words and a face that some people want to kiss and some people want to punch, and he’s never had any idea or say in why.

Even when Catwoman was gliding her nail down his face, a glint in her eye and a purr in her voice, holding him away by the collar, “What’s a pretty boy like you doing in a place like this?”

Even when Bane was standing over him, already having broken more of Dick’s bones than he could count through the haze of pain, his knuckles coated in Dick’s blood. “It’s a shame that I’ll have to break such a pretty little face.”

Even when Scarecrow was lording above him while he writhed on the ground, eyes wide with panic and body trembling with fear. “It’s a scandal you’re so pretty,” He would hiss, “I always did have a soft spot for the pretty ones.”

Even when Penguin was beating his face black and blue, his skin bubbling with lumps and his skin reddening with blood. “Ah, I guess it doesn’t really matter what I do to ‘ya face, boy. You’re always gonna be a pretty little shit.”

Even when Harley was laughing in his face as he choked on toxin and leapt blindly away from her snapping hyenas. “Come on pretty boy, come and get it! My babies want to play!”

Even when Two-Face had him tied up in a chair while he idly flipped his coin between his fingers and the rest of his militia pointed guns at Dick’s head. “We know he’ll come for you, pretty boy. Bats always did like you best.”

Even when Poison Ivy had him tangled upside down in her plants, the blood rushing from his toes to his head in a matter of moments and his mind getting clouded from however long he’s been like that for. “Don’t struggle, pretty. This will be over much quicker if you don’t struggle.”

Dick has always been a pretty boy.


End file.
